Today, a new contract was signed between German and Norwegian power providers to develop infrastructure for buffering German wind and solar electric power in Norwegian hydroelectric facilities, this way enhancing green energy and reducing weather dependence of power supply in both countries. Norway already has such contracts with Denmark, and is going to have them with the UK as well.

www.offshore.no/sak/35441_kabler_til_tys...

www.faz.net/aktuell/wirtschaft/seekabel-...

Edit: English translations:  translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=...

translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=...

Unless something changes in public attitude soon, the US is going to get left behind in a rapidly expanding sector.

Do you happen to know about fish dying because of Nord.Link hydroelectric installations?

If so, please share!

Jun 22, 2012 -- 11:55AM, Ebon wrote:

Unless something changes in public attitude soon, the US is going to get left behind in a rapidly expanding sector.

I have spent some interesting times along the Great Lakes (North American, not the African ones) and when driving along the roads, at night, speaking French on the Bluetooth, with the windows down, I heard some gigantic "woosh! swish!" sounds that scared the hell out of me.  I later discerned that the area is home to some of the greatest wind farms in the world.  I am not sure that China will outpace the U.S., but I do, indeed, think that it will be a close race between the wind farms in the Baltic Sea and the U.S.   Did anyone catch the Wingopublicans in the Congress telling the Pentagon to drop its alternative fuel programs lately, thanks to the Christian oil interests?

Jun 22, 2012 -- 10:37PM, CharikIeia wrote:

Jun 22, 2012 -- 9:42PM, jane2 wrote:

We graduate first-rate engineers and scientists from our MITs and CalTech's, etc.

For every US engineer graduating, seven engineers graduate in Asia.

There are almost as many lawyers as engineers today, in the USA.

Over the last decade, half a million engineer jobs were lost.

It's because of capitalism. Being a lawyer or a physician pays WAY better!
(To the individual I mean, not to society at large...)

I have no statistics on Asian engineers. Many who graduate from MIT and CalTech do not graduate as engineers, but as scientists. My grandson is a good example. He will be a physicist and mathmetician ; he also composes music : all abstract. He was recruited by MIT, CalTech and Stanford. Asian students also come to the US to study. My Dad was an engineer as was his father and two uncles, but my Dad and his father made their money in industrial sales. I doubt our Jeff will ever want for anything. (He loves Boston, partially because he does not need a car and my husband's family was all New England.)